The girls race at yesterday's Class 4A North regional meet at Oregon Ridge Park was supposed to be a toss-up between three or four of the area's top five teams.
Instead, it was No. 2 Dulaney that served notice that it may be the team to beat at next weekend's state championships.
Five Lions runners finished in the top 10 to help their team to a first-place finish with 27 points, beating out No. 5 Perry Hall (45) and top-ranked Western (51).
Though all three qualified for the Nov. 12 state meet at Hereford, the win was rewarding for Lions coach Bob Dean.
"I felt we got a great effort out of all the kids," said Dean, whose team included Suzanne Sclafani (second, 21 minutes, 29 seconds), Marjorie Bollinger (third, 21:38), Melissa Wilson (third, 21:47), Meghan White (eighth, 22:04) and Erin Cecil (10th, 22:12).
Perry Hall's Krissy Jost -- who last year led her team to the Class 4A state championship -- easily won the meet, covering the rolling 3.1-mile course in 19:26.
On the boys side, Perry Hall took first with 23 points, Mervo was second (49) and Dulaney third (65).
The third-ranked Gators had seven runners in the top 11, led by Shawn Kelly (the winner in 17:35), Chris Marye (fourth, 17:55) and Chris Horodowicz (fifth, 18:00).
Mervo's strong showing came as a surprise to some.
The unranked Mustangs, who qualified for the state meet for the second straight year, were led by Mike Curtis (17:45) and Garfield Thompson (17:52), who finished second and third, respectively.
"We've been building toward this," said Mervo coach Ronald Neal, whose team also ran well two weeks ago at the Georgetown Prep meet.
"The last couple of weeks we've done pretty good. We knew we'd be in there time-wise."